there's a decent game under the bonnet here.
I have spent whole morning playing it to see what changed since last time I tried it 2 years ago.
It doesnt feel like a mobile game on console anymore. it has a decent pace and the ball physics has been improved.
After playing few matches against AI I decided to try 'pvp'.
But I went in crazy way. I didnt claimed any gifted players that Konami gave me. I went full default squad, full manual. my best players were 58OVR.
and then it started. each team full of messi's, haaland's, mbappe's..
of course - I didnt stand a chance and was obliderated most of the time. got a draw here and there, but was also destroyed 0:7. their players were stronger, faster and every single one of them was on assisted settings up until the end.
I wonder what were they thinking when they saw me with a default team on full manual. probably thought Im some grampa, who doesnt understand computers and didnt know how to claim the players. if it wasnt bad enough - he thought the higher the pass assist level the more assisted it will be and ended up playing on manual.. poor gramps..
its a real shame this game will not allow you to play with shitty players and have everybody online having unique squads.
It could be real fun to play scrappy football and slowly develop your team.
on a plus side - people I played with didnt do any shitty things, didnt exploit the game, didnt disconnect or acted like pricks.
It was actually quite a pleasant experience, spoiled only by the same pool of players, who didnt give me a chance to compete.
But I think im gonna continue this account. Not claiming any players, not buying any, just playing matches with my shitty team and developing my shitty players when they gather experience points.
Even if it was just to confuse the online crowd and show them that you can play with crap team and not disconnect when you are losing 0:5.
I was quite harsh on it at first, probably because I'd been playing a bit of fifa 23 with os sliders, and the freedom of that game (albeit with all its problems) rather spoiled efootball. And also because efootball still has major failures, both in options, but also shooting physics and player movement.
But on Saturday, I played 5 hours straight. 3 more hours on Sunday.
Yesterday, I played 11pm till midnight.
All the things lacking should not be forgiven. And the shooting physics are just not good enough.
But the flow of the game, the player placement, the ai, the wide range of interactions between players and players and ball, is genuinely surprising.
I had a 6 header game of head tennis in the middle of a match with the cpu. Have never seen that before. You can also clear headers properly now.
Ive had players fall backwards and miss headers, balls skew off the side of a defender's head when trying to clear a ball, defenders back pedalling to head a goal kick away, only to miss the ball totally, or be challenged by a striker and just fall down under the pressure of the challenge. I've seen konate desperately try and beat a player to a cross into the box at the near post, and barely get anything onto the ball, just getting it behind for a corner.
Also small deflections of the ball in midfield, which change the direction of the ball by only a few degrees. Havent seen it done quite as well before.
I've seen Kephran Thuram charging through the opposition midfield, the ball bounce up, and ricochet between ground and knees repertedly as he dribbled forward. He looked very clumsy, but very impressive and real. Almost how Darwin Nunez stumbles his way through players. The fact I was controlling him made it more satisfying.
The way the game opens up and contracts is also impressing me. Moments where Mbappe, Griezmann and Dembele are absolutely tearing at at a backline, but then times when the midfield totally closes up, and I have to pass back to my goalie. I've also forced the cpu to do that, actually pressing as they pass the ball across their back line, until they knocked it out of play. I know this has been in games before, but it felt more specific in nature.
The range of cpu attacking patterns is surprising too. I cant often predict where there'll go next, but only 20% of the time does it feel unfair.
I'm almost starting to feel some player individuality, especially on shooting, through balls and long balls. And strength too.
The longer I play, I'm finding more and more ways to attack. That's quite surprising as mostly to this point, efootball has been predictable in teammate runs etc.
The moment I've been most impressed with is when as france, I won possession from a spain midfielder about 10 yards outside Spain's box, in line with the left edge of their area.
When I won it, about 6 players swarmed me, in a proper pressing pattern, and I had to pass very quickly, to somehow escape the press. I was literally surrounded.
I recognise that longer playing sessions condition you to a game. And mainly, my complements are limited to ai behaviour and positioning. But the ground passing physics also look, sound and feel reasonably good, espcially when you are zipping it between players through midfield, not to make progress, but to evade the press.
Pitch and player graphics on pc also look genuinely good on around 60% of stadiums.
So lots of faults still. But a few core things that I'm really enjoying. Still only 50% on the pitch, but what it does well, it does very well.
There are clearly some very talented developers at konami. Shame they're so badly underfunded.
